Australia construction activity drops

JamesGlynn

SYDNEY--The total value of construction activity in Australia, including building and engineering work, fell by 3.6% in the third quarter from the second, as a sharp downturn in mining investment continued to play out.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday that the value of building work completed--which includes residential and non-residential work--rose by 0.6%.

However, the overall construction figure was dragged down by a 7.3% drop in the value of engineering work completed in the third quarter compared with the second.

The fall in construction activity is consistent with the end of a long mining-investment boom, though it is being offset partly by a pickup in residential building construction on the back of soaring house prices and record-low interest rates.

The latest ABS data on construction will be a key component of upcoming third-quarter GDP data.

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